Re: The meat in the sandwich

: : : : : : : : Someone being "the meat in the sandwich". What does that mean?

: : : : : : : Just guessing -- a person of substance?

: : : : : : In the world of depraved humor, being the meat in the sandwich is often thought of as a good thing, one of the best-known cases of which was Lucky Pierre. But please don't ask me to explain, other than that there was Pierre, in the middle between two babes.: : : : : : SS

: : : : : Oh, my.

: : : : In the version I heard, Pierre was between two men. ~rb

: : : And I thought it just meant "Where's the beef?" I need to get out more. Or maybe I don't.

: : There's an old and rather rude joke, told mostly by adolescent boys, in which Pierre finds himself successively in the middle in different situations, each of them evoking the phrase, "Lucky Pierre, always in the middle." The joke is similar in structure to the one in which the catch-phrase is "And there I stood with my piccolo!"

: : However, I can imagine that there might be numerous situations suggestive of a human sandwich, some serious, some humorous, and some pretty gruesome. : : SS

: If we have gotten all the "amusing" sexual innuendo quite out of the way...?: When used in reference to other things than menage a trois, "the meat of the sandwich" is the heart of the matter, the most important part, the defining ingredient, etc. The bread may be nice, but it's not a ham sandwich without ham, but it's still a ham sandwich whether it's on wheat, rye, or pumpernickel. A person could be this kind of meat in the sandwich in a team or work situation, e.g. the driver is the meat in the sandwich of a car racing team.

In England, it's quite common for a girl with one older and one younger brother, or a boy with one older and one younger sister, to describe her/himself as "the meat in the sandwich", implying that s/he is the best, most valuable constituent of the trio, with no kind of innuendo. (VSD)